Many drugs help control vital functions as well such as those for heart, diabetes, seizures etc.

I think everyone would agree that some drugs are good and some bad. Some are necessary while some have deadly side effects.

We also recognize that when we talk about drugs we are also talking primarily about pharmaceuticals while also recognizing there are a bevy of naturally occurring elements in nature that perform some of the same functions. Normally we see these as things grown however, plants, leaves and seeds, bark but also harvested from snakes, fish, toads etc.

We recognize and understand that some drugs and things grown or harvested or manufactured can change the way a person (or other living animal) reacts to situations, to what is going on around them and also within their own body. There are parasitic plants and animals that find their way into an unsuspecting host and actually change the way that host should typically behave in order to be self-preserving. For example, parasites are noted entering insects who then do not hide when they should, or who go out at night and wander when they should be burrowed deep in damp soil.

But there are elements we are born with that behave the same way drugs behave. These chemicals turn on and off and even change as we age and enter into specific life stages. They are necessary to keep not just or organs healthy and functioning, but they also control our behavior so we’ll run when there is danger, etc. or procreate. Upon entering puberty there are a number of these flooding hormones that press, pull and push well beyond the still infant intellect of the bodies they inhabit and giving into these chemicals causes an effect that many crave and if that craving is denied within a relationship can cause the relationship to die. It has also been noted that when the flight or fight elements flood and find no adequate release because intellect attempts to control the wash of chemistry, other physiological problems can occur.

While the first elements can be selectively used, the latter here cannot….............or rather perhaps they can. It has been suggested that freedom of choice cannot ever be ours unless the elements of the body that ‘control our behavior’ are removed.

So here are my queries since this is a bit complicated: Which is of more importance to you: freedom of choice, or the elements that make you feel good or direct your behavior? How much control do you believe you have over those elements?

It has been suggested that freedom of choice cannot ever be ours unless the elements of the body that ‘control our behavior’ are removed.

Please remember that instinct is controlled by chemistry

So you’re saying that to have “true” freedom of choice I have to have the chemicals and processes removed from my body. That would remove my instincts. So when someone calls my name, I turn around and then they hurl a ball at my head while saying, “think fast!” I will no longer instinctually duck or try to catch it. I will now need to, literally, think fast and decide what I’m going to do.

See, I don’t buy that. I don’t think that “freedom of choice” is tied to my basic nature as a human. Heck, as an animal. My freedom of choice is what I do, the way I act, the way I interact with the world around me, the society and people around me.

There is no “choice” tied to chemical processes of my being because my being is itself based on those chemicals. But my physical being in relation to those chemicals is not completely strict and either/or. I can choose to work out and get in really good shape. That will change the way by body acts, what chemicals are produced and the processes my body does to some extent. And if I stop working out, lay around all day, gain hundreds of pounds and eat crappy food my body will react another way. And guess what? Those chemicals and processes are tied to by choices that had nothing to do with the chemicals and processes!

So, in short, I don’t buy the hypothesis. You’re asking an either/or question about two unrelated (to me, in my mind) things. I have no answer to this non-question.

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Attention to detail: An apostrophe is the difference between a company that knows its shit and a company that knows it’s shit.

I know some of these queries seem strange and convoluted. Unfortunately to pull teeth without letting the patient know teeth are being pulled is not always easy. The queries asked may seem straight forward but they give a truth that isn’t always transparent.

I had a more difficult time with this one and actually waited until I could lay it better. Unfortunately, there was no easy way and this was the best I could do….....